PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times
By JON HURDLE and ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: May 17, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — After seven weeks of testimony, prosecutors on Thursday rested their case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first senior Roman Catholic official in the United States to face criminal charges of covering up sexual abuse by priests and reassigning those suspected of child molesting to unwary new parishes.
Monsignor Lynn, 61, served from 1992 to 2004 as secretary for clergy for the 1.5 million-member Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in charge of job assignments for priests and investigating complaints about their behavior. He is not accused of committing sexual abuses himself, but rather of endangering minors and conspiring with other officials to protect accused priests.
In rulings on Thursday, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina of Common Pleas Court dismissed one of two conspiracy counts against Monsignor Lynn, involving allegations of efforts to protect the Rev. James J. Brennan, a priest who remains a co-defendant in the current trial and is accused of the attempted rape of a child.
But Judge Sarmina left intact the charges that Monsignor Lynn endangered two minors by failing to remove errant priests and also a second conspiracy charge, that he cooperated with other officials to protect a former priest, Edward V. Avery, who recently pleaded guilty to sex abuse.
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